RICS response to manifesto announcements regarding construction, infrastructure and skills

Construction is a substantial part of the UK economy accounting for £110 billion in GVA, 7% of GDP and employs over 2 million people. Construction and infrastructure not only fuels growth and creates jobs but regenerates communities through sustainable placemaking.

A shortage of skilled workers in the built environment industry has led to a growing gap between the demand for infrastructure development and the available workforce. Consequences include delays and increased costs for construction projects and limits to the sector’s capability to meet the demand for new housing and infrastructure. The new government must invest in the skills this sector needs to deliver a highly skilled workforce, thriving communities and a sustainable future.

Below is the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) response to the sector, looking at the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green and Reform UK manifestos and their response to construction, infrastructure, and the skills shortage.

Manifesto statements:

Labour

• Developing a ten-year infrastructure strategy, aligned with Labours industrial strategy and regional development priorities, including improving rail connectivity across the north of England.
• Create a new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, bringing together existing bodies, to set strategic infrastructure priorities and oversee the design, scope, and delivery of projects.
• Set out new national policy statements, make major projects faster and cheaper by slashing red tape, and build support for developments by ensuring communities directly benefit.
• Develop a long-term strategy for transport, ensuring transport infrastructure can be delivered efficiently and on time.
• Establish a new body, Skills England to oversee the national skills effort in England and bring together business, training providers and unions with national and local government to ensure a highly trained workforce needed to deliver Labour’s Industrial Strategy.
• Reform the apprenticeship levy replacing it with a flexible Growth and Skills Levy with Skills England consulting on eligible courses to ensure qualifications offer value for money.
• Increase the number of construction apprenticeships to fill worker shortages and help more young people enter the industry.
• Ensuring that migration to address skills shortages triggers a plan to upskill workers and improve working conditions in the UK. Labour have pledged to strengthen the Migration Advisory Committee and establish a framework for joint working with skills bodies across the UK, the Industrial Strategy Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.
• End the long-term reliance on overseas workers in some parts of the economy by bringing in workforce and training plans for sectors such as construction.
• Devolving adult skills funding to Combined Authorities, empowering local leaders to have greater control of skills development in their areas, alongside a greater role in supporting people into work.

Conservative

• Deliver their plan for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) bringing more frequent trains, more capacity and faster journeys.
• Committed £12 billion on top of their HS2 savings to deliver the section of Northern Powerhouse Rail between Manchester and Liverpool. Savings from HS2 have enabled funding electrification to Hull and build a new station in Bradford.
• Boost rail connectivity in the Midlands, with £1.75 billion to fund the Midlands Rail Hub in full and upgrade the line between Newark and Nottingham to halve journey times between Nottingham and Leeds.
• Speed up the average time it takes to sign off major infrastructure projects from four years to one.
• Reduce the cost of infrastructure by allowing quicker changes to consented projects.
• Ensure National Policy Statements are regularly updated.
• End frivolous legal challenges that frustrate infrastructure delivery by amending the law so judicial reviews that don’t have merit do not waste court time.
• Fund 100,000 high-quality apprenticeships for young people, paid for by closing university courses in England with the worst outcomes for their students (excessive drop-out rates and poor job prospects).
• Deliver the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, giving adults the support they need to train, retrain, and upskill flexibly throughout their working lives and expand adult skills programmes, such as Skills Bootcamps to address skills shortages.
• Introduce a legal cap on migration to guarantee that numbers will fall every year, so public services are protected while bringing in the skills our business’s need.

Liberal Democrats

• Putting the construction sector on a sustainable footing by investing in skills, training, and new technologies such as modern methods of construction (MMC).
• Continuing to champion investment in the Northern Powerhouse, Western Gateway, and Midlands Engine.
• Increase investment in green infrastructure, including renewable energy and zero-carbon transport, industry, and housing.
• Give a clearer zero-carbon remit to the UK Infrastructure Bank.
• Provide skills training, incentives, and advice to help families and businesses with the transition to net zero.
• Invest in green infrastructure, innovation, and skills to boost economic growth and create good jobs and prosperity in every nation and region of the UK, while tackling the climate crisis.
• Fix the skills and recruitment crisis by investing in education and training, including increasing the availability of apprenticeships and career advice for young people.

Green

• All planning applications will be required to include whole-life carbon and energy calculations, covering construction, maintenance, and operational use.
• All materials from demolished buildings will need to be considered for reuse. Rates for disposal of builders’ waste will be increased to ensure that the economic driver for reuse is firmly in place.
• Increase investment into research and development by over £30bn in the lifetime of the five-year parliament, additional spending will be primarily focused on tackling the climate and environmental crisis through funding research into sectors including re-use, repair, recycling and designing out waste; carbon neutral construction; carbon-neutral production and carbon capture technology.
• Investment in skills and training (including retrofitting) reaching £4bn per year, allowing workers to be prepared for the transition and the new roles they can take on.
• A £3bn increase in funding for sixth-form education over the next parliamentary term, and a £12bn investment in skills and lifelong learning for further education.

Reform UK

• Incentivise use of new construction technology such as modular construction, and smart infrastructure.
• Launch a national database for councils, contractors, government, and utilities to ensure coordination of projects and integrated transport infrastructure.
• Accelerate already announced transport infrastructure with a focus on the North.
• Scrap the rest of HS2.
• Overhaul and merge the National Infrastructure Commission and the Infrastructure Bank to create a single government infrastructure funding stream.
• Increase technical courses and apprenticeships, valuing young people with vocational talents. Britain needs skilled workers in engineering, construction, IT, and high demand sectors.
• Smart immigration to target the essential skills our economy needs.

RICS response

RICS welcomes some of the announcements made such as:

• Labour’s commitment to establish a new skills body to oversee the national skills effort in England which is also detailed in the RICS manifesto to address ongoing skills in the construction sector. RICS recommends focused sector taskforces including one for the built and natural environment.
• Conservative’s commitment to increasing apprenticeships, RICS supports funding for practical degree apprenticeships that could build the future pipeline to plug the construction skills gap.
• Liberal Democrats commitment to putting the construction sector on a sustainable footing by investing in new technologies such as MMC. RICS encourages the adoption of innovative technologies and practices to drive efficiency and sustainability in infrastructure projects, we have also called for MMC to be integrated into broader policy programmes such as National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and building standards.
• Green’s commitment to have all planning applications required to include whole-life carbon and energy calculations, covering construction, maintenance, and operational use. The RICS manifesto calls for a mandated whole life carbon assessment by adopting Part Z building regulations for new buildings and standardising the measurement of embodied and operational carbon for built assets. This can be achieved through the integration of International Cost Measurement Standards (ICMS), RICS’ whole life carbon assessment (WLCA) for the built environment and the Built Environment Carbon Database (BECD) to enable accurate project benchmarking.
• Reform UK’s commitment to increase technical courses and apprenticeships to ensure that the sector has the essential skills our economy needs.

One commitment missing however which is essential for a future government to consider is the cabinet level appointment of a dedicated construction minister. There is no official title of construction minister within the UK appointment however this is generally a minister whose role includes construction and infrastructure. There have been around 25 construction ministers since 2001 which has not helped deliver the certainty this sector needs.

Appointing a dedicated construction minister could provide focused leadership, improve coordination between intersecting sectors such as housing and transport, address industry challenges e.g. skills shortages and sustainability goals, and drive economic growth and innovation. Topics of national importance such as energy infrastructure also need government level oversight to ensure national interests are met for the public benefit. RICS looks forward to seeing if a future government does make this change which will ultimately benefit the sector and the wider UK economy.

Whilst RICS welcomes each party’s commitment to addressing the skills shortage we would have liked to see specific reference to the introduction of a Built Environment GCSE in England as recommended by the House of Lords Built Environment Committee which would inspire the next generation of professionals to pursue vocational careers and showcase the important role the sector has in meeting our infrastructure, housing, and environmental needs.

A future government must take a multifaceted approach to address the skills crisis and invest in the green skills the UK needs to improve productivity, drive sustainable innovation, and create greater diversity and inclusion.